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Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Figureworld Model Show in Oundle, UK

Yup another convention almost right outside my door ( and by right outside I mean a good 2.5 hr drive up the main carriage way! ). But it was a good way to spend the Saturday with Junior in tow. And to have a looksie at some of the other aspects of the painting community that exists here in UK!

I say other aspects as there were a ton of models and styles that I was not accustomed to, or was unfamiliar to me. So to have the chance to check them out, and chat with the people as well was brilliant!

Kicking things off I did also get to run into a few others that I have been meaning to catch up with for a while.. one being Mat Hart.. co-founder of Guild Ball which just finished on Kickstarter, and is now gearing up for production runs of their models!

Great guy, who even supplied me with a few pre-production test pieces to review and provide feedback on! Expect a write up on them soon!

I also had the chance to finally meed up with Jay from Warpaint Studios. Was great catching up with him, and seeing some of his pieces in the flesh as well!

There were of course many others that I got to run into and chat with along the day.. people like Shane Rozzell ( Founder of Figure Painting Magazine ), Andrew Nai who I will meet once more this weekend in Liverpool, James from Infamy Miniatures where we talked about his kickstarter and what is yet to come for it! And although I got the chance to speak with many "famous" people around the hall, I also chatted up a few of the vendors! Many of whom I hope to chat with more in the ( not to distant ) future!

But I have to get to the point of the show.. the models! And although it was quite small ( much smaller than I thought it would be ) there was some top shelf pieces being shown here!

And at this point I had barely covered the first end of the table!

Jay's Ogre that he painted with the assistance/guidance of Adam Halon from Poland.

Starting to see some new models that I have not seen before or at least not been exposed to in the past! And I can also see that a lot of these guys put some serious time into their display stands!

Something for me to think about potentially in the future :)

Some very different styles appeared throughout the stands also. From Super blended pieces, to more Comic styled pieces.

This daemon bust was beyond words to me on how well it was painted up! And the sculpt is one that I will now need to search for and look to grab myself for a future painting session!

Some of the historical pieces that were rounding the other corner of the central table. Amazing pieces here as well.. really top shelf pieces here and quite the display to go alongside it!

This section was quite interesting for me though.. flat figures! I had seen some for sale at Duke, and a few entries in this category there, but nothing to this scale! Apparently there is quite the flat figure community here in UK and as can be seen fro the photos, there are quite a few showing up to events! Something to think about when heading to Euro Militaire later this year!

And finishing off the table sections ( or at least what I was able to snap photos of ) were a few more selections of people's work. Either solo or group pieces being shown off!

Somewhere in the middle of all this though, Junior was getting far too tired. So we went and grabbed him a nice "energy" food as he called it.. which consisted of a chocolate cupcake!

He did quite well throughout the day, and only a few times did I need to run over and save some models from his backpack! To say that I had a few mini-heart attacks during the day would be an understatement!

Of course there were the vendors. Many selling the same things or close to it at least. A unique one was Retro selling off Minions!

The last one was a bit expensive, until I realized that it had working lights! And all those pieces came with the model! Thankfully he will be at Scale Model Challenge later this year, so another chance to pick it up will occur then ;)

And of course with vendors come buying.. and Mr Lee here was not to be left undone! As stated, lots of the same stuff being sold in the show, but for me many of it was brand new or pieces that I would prefer to have now! Especially.. SOCKETS! Although I know a lot of socket providers in Germany ( Sockelmacher, Michael from 5th-dimension, and CrazyWenky ) I don't know any in UK! So I may have gone a bit overboard with some of them from this show...

Some unique pieces that were up for grabs. Some higher end bits available. Along with some other pieces from the show that included...

Crazy Peter in 54mm from Infamy ( review to come )

WW1 Scotsman ( practice my tartan patterns )

Wolverine Minion ( for fun! )

Cowgirl flat figure

Tinkerbell from Guild of Harmony ( maybe I can recreate another spectacle like Alice? )

Guild Ball pre-production test pieces.. not so much a purchase as it more for review and critique ( review to come soon! )

Junior also somehow got me to buy him legos at the first rest stop we hit.. before he passed out in the car for the remainder of the ride!

But that was our Saturday adventures! 260+ miles turnaround, plus the walking around the convention hall! A good way to spend a muggy Saturday.. and looking forward to the adventures to come over the weekends coming up! Many more adventures in the near future to come!

Cheers Greg.. though I think anyone can put up models there. I know for next year I will attempt to show up earlier and put some pieces up as well! I should have a decent little display ready to put up there by this time next year!

Cool beans with regards to the campaign. Looking forward to it. As for the convention, it is something to go to like going to a museum at times. There are just pieces that stand out, and things to start discussions on as well. Hopefully it sparks something even if not all is your cup of tea ;)

Was a lot of fun Michael. Though 2.5 hrs is still quite close when thinking back to turkey.. where the closest shows to me were 6-10 hrs away! 2.5 hrs would still leave me in Istanbul! Let's see how the following weeks go as I have many more things to see and report back on ;)